S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (series): Difference between revisions

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* [[Badass Bystander]]: Noah from ''Call of Pripyat'', a batshit-insane lone stalker trying to build himself an ark to protect against mutants. He's got a ''tame pseudodog'' (for those who don't know, [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100212004823/stalker/images/0/01/Noah%27s_dog.jpg this] is a pseudodog, and they're well known for tearing well-armed-and-armored Stalkers to shreds) named [[Fluffy the Terrible|Lassie]]. When a military squad came they tried to detain him for shooting at them (he does that to everyone), but instead ''he'' tried to detain ''them''. At one point in the game, the player's tasked with tracking down an incredibly rare artifact, one which hasn't been seen in a very long time, and apparently Noah has a lead on where to find one. Turns out he has ''three of them'', which he will just ''give away'', implying he has ''even more''. Finally, if he survives until the end of the game, his ending describes some Stalkers taking shelter in his ark during a particularly bad blowout/emission. Turns out it actually works, and during the ensuing mutant attack he charges into battle backed-up by Lassie and ''three pseudodog puppies''.

* [[Badass Grandpa]]: Implied in ''Clear Sky'': while bloodsuckers can take out even veteran stalkers with top-tier gear with ease, the old forester, named Leshy (after a Russian forest spirit/demon, which are known for being extremely powerful), living near the Red Forest was able to bag himself one with little more than a double-barreled shotgun and an [[Nice Hat|ushanka]] for protection. In addition, he lives in the [[Death World|Red Forest]] (a place where most Stalkers are afraid to set foot even in heavily-armed groups), ''alone''.

* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Scar. There is also the option for the player to invoke this by wearing the leather jacket ~~armour~~ in all three games. Of course, this tends to make the game even more difficult. (It's even lampshaded in the item's description that it's useless in the Zone but many bandits wear them anyway because they're cool.)

* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Scar. There is also the option for the player to invoke this by wearing the leather jacket armor in all three games. Of course, this tends to make the game even more difficult. (It's even lampshaded in the item's description that it's useless in the Zone but many bandits wear them anyway because they're cool.)

* [[Badass Normal]]: The Marked One, a.k.a. {{spoiler|Strelok}}.

** To a slightly lesser degree, ''[[World of Badass|every single person in the entire Zone]]''. The ones who aren't [[Anyone Can Die|generally don't last long]] - or are traders.

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* [[Breakable Weapons]]: All guns degrade with use, becoming more prone to jamming and less accurate. Annoyingly, in ''Shadow of Chernobyl'', no one knows how to repair them, so you have to throw your rifle away and get a new one after using it for firing a few dozen magazines of bullets.

** Even worse, this applies to ''armor.'' Considering how lethal the zone is, this leads to some heartbreaking encounters: there's nothing like paying a king's ransom for a military-grade protective suit only to get it chewed up by one of the ubiquitous packs of wild dogs in the zone.

** However a exploit allows you to use artifacts to become immune to a certain kind of damage, which then heals you and repairs your ~~armour~~ when you receive that damage. This exploit proved so popular that [[Ascended Glitch|it was actually deliberately left unfixed]], and is in fact commonly considered to be a valid tactic by the community (what with there being no other way to repair armor in the first game).

** However a exploit allows you to use artifacts to become immune to a certain kind of damage, which then heals you and repairs your armor when you receive that damage. This exploit proved so popular that [[Ascended Glitch|it was actually deliberately left unfixed]], and is in fact commonly considered to be a valid tactic by the community (what with there being no other way to repair armor in the first game).

** Of course, it has since been modded. Expect to pay a daily fee to the few merchants to repair your stuff, or find some rare and limited repairing kits on the battlefield.

* [[Charles Atlas Superpower]]: Story-wise, Scar is supposed to have enhanced physical abilities (i.e. endurance and strength) due to "being touched by the Zone". In-game this manifests as...[[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|slightly more health and stamina than the average NPC]].

** Story-wise, he ''does'' survive several emissions that wiped out every other person not in cover, so it's more a case of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]].

* [[Church Militant]]/[[Cult]] : The Monolith faction, who ''worship'' the Wish Granter and by extension the Zone itself, and are viewed as dangerous psychotic fanatics by everyone else, ''Call of Pripyat'' expands on this, introducing elite members called preachers, who wield gauss rifles and give ''sermons'' before and ''during'' battles. {{spoiler|Monolith soldiers are all [[Brainwashed and Crazy]], so.}}

* [[Church Militant]]/[[Cult]]: The Monolith faction, who ''worship'' the Wish Granter and by extension the Zone itself, and are viewed as dangerous psychotic fanatics by everyone else, ''Call of Pripyat'' expands on this, introducing elite members called preachers, who wield gauss rifles and give ''sermons'' before and ''during'' battles. {{spoiler|Monolith soldiers are all [[Brainwashed and Crazy]], so.}}

* [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: Stalkers in ''Clear Sky'' and ''Call of Pripyat'' are capable of throwing grenades with inhuman accuracy, tossing them so they land right at your feet. And they do it ''in unison'' with their squad.

* [[Continue Your Mission, Dammit!]]: I said come in! Don't just stand there!

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* [[Cool but Inefficient]]: Most of the artillery a player encounters is necessarily left right where it's found: The Chernobyl periphery is a big place, and though it's ''possible'' to take on an extra ten kilograms of equipment, it will diminish your capacity to travel at any rate faster than a hobble, and that way lies madness. The best armor in the game supports its own weight and lets you carry an extra five kilograms above even that, but it also prevents you from sprinting, so one may be left wondering why he bothered in the first place.

** In ''Shadow of Chernobyl'', there comes a time in the story where the player's quest becomes a linear and steady approach towards its conclusion, with a minimum of backtracking and plenty of formidable enemies in the way. It's not difficult to anticipate this section of the game, even on a first-time playthrough, so before embarking, a player may calculate that sprinting will be a negligible asset. If you make that decision, you're destined to be a tank: The Exoskeleton will give you another twenty kilos to fill with explosives, and since you won't be running anyway, it's literally no problem to overload yourself with an additional ten kilos of sniper equipment. It's a good way to keep the admittedly weak endgame feeling fresh with a little bit of destructive variety.

*** The rocket launcher comes with a severe deficiency of ammo and a weight that could ~~singlehandedly~~ push you from comfortable to immobile. It is, however, extremely useful for taking out the squad of mercenaries that attacks the rookie village - a single well-placed rocket will kill all six of them, which is good because that one rocket is pretty much all you're guaranteed.

*** The rocket launcher comes with a severe deficiency of ammo and a weight that could single-handedly push you from comfortable to immobile. It is, however, extremely useful for taking out the squad of mercenaries that attacks the rookie village - a single well-placed rocket will kill all six of them, which is good because that one rocket is pretty much all you're guaranteed.

** In ''Clear Sky'', you can upgrade the exoskeleton to make yourself nearly bulletproof, and the extra weight capacity makes it practical to use a light machine gun, turning you into a walking tank. This is a tremendous investment though, and requires you to play nice with Duty.

** In ''Call of Pripyat'', one of the final upgrade tiers for the exoskeleton removes the inability to sprint, making it essentially the best armor of the game.

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** Done away with entirely in ''Call of Pripyat'', where crates and metal supply boxes no longer drop any items when smashed. To compensate, you get a decent amount of ammo and medical supplies from other stalkers each day as tribute for completing certain major quests. In addition, stashes can now be discovered by the player on their own, and anyone with a good eye for hiding spots will likely find a few on their first or second playthroughs. Some however, are so well-concealed that it is unlikely the player will ever find them [[Guide Dang It|without consulting an online walkthrough]].

* [[Creepy Monotone]]: Monolith members. Also Strider/Rogue, the ex-Monolith trooper in ''Call of Pripyat''.

** [[Guttural Growler]] - Monolith members the other half of the time they speak.

** [[Guttural Growler]]: Monolith members the other half of the time they speak.

* [[Cthulhumanoid]]: Bloodsuckers.

* [[Cutting Off the Branches]]: As mentioned above, {{spoiler|''Call of Pripyat'' takes the good ending of ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' as canon.}}

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* [[Dark World]] : What the Zone of the games is, especially when compared to the [[Real Life]] Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

* [[Death or Glory Attack]]: In-universe, going into the Zone at all is this. An aspiring artifact hunter will either end up rich beyond his wildest dreams, or killed horrifically. Or [[Fate Worse Than Death|worse]].

* [[Demonic Spiders]]: In-Universe: The PDA explicitly lists blind dogs (and by extension, pseudodogs) as deadly to even the most experienced Stalkers, as they are fast, small (compared to humans), slightly stealthy, and most importantly, '''hunt in packs'''. Then there's the Controllers, which will because of the [[Interface Screw]] that comes with their psychic attack likely kill you if they manage to score a single hit, the Burers, who generally start their assault by telekinetically throwing your gun halfway across the map before ~~pummelling~~ you to death with heavy objects and telekinetic blasts, the Bloodsuckers, who'll turn invisible as soon as they spot you and perform hit and run attacks while circling your position or just tear you to shreds immediately in melee combat. Let's just say [[Death World|everything and everyone in the Zone]] is this to some degree.

* [[Demonic Spiders]]: In-Universe: The PDA explicitly lists blind dogs (and by extension, pseudodogs) as deadly to even the most experienced Stalkers, as they are fast, small (compared to humans), slightly stealthy, and most importantly, '''hunt in packs'''. Then there's the Controllers, which will because of the [[Interface Screw]] that comes with their psychic attack likely kill you if they manage to score a single hit, the Burers, who generally start their assault by telekinetically throwing your gun halfway across the map before pummeling you to death with heavy objects and telekinetic blasts, the Bloodsuckers, who'll turn invisible as soon as they spot you and perform hit and run attacks while circling your position or just tear you to shreds immediately in melee combat. Let's just say [[Death World|everything and everyone in the Zone]] is this to some degree.

* [[Disc One Nuke]]: Every few games, the store in the first town of ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' carries an extremely powerful assault rifle that uses a very common caliber. There's also a very useful armor nearby. They become obsolete once you get past the first few areas, though.

** To be more specific, Barin's Tunder 5.45mm is sold by Sidorovich in the early game (before you speak to Wolf and after you've rescued Nimble) for 20,000 RU. Needless to say, it's highly unlikely you'll get this amount in time. You'd need to gather all of the loot in the first map and maybe some of the second to amass the amount needed. However, it's a '''very''' useful gun in the early game, as it is an mid to endgame gun chambered for an ammo type common in the early game.

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* [[Downer Ending]]: Clear Sky ends like this, in order to set up the plot for ''Shadow of Chernobyl''. Also, all but two (three if you're charitable) of the endings to ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' are like this.

** ''Call of Pripyat'' has modular ending similar to the one in ''Fallout 2'' consisting of some 20 static scenes. Most of them have "good" and "bad" versions, depending on player's actions during the game. Bad endings for your companions, especially {{spoiler|Strelok}} definitely qualify.

* [[Drone of Dread]] - Psy attacks come with this (most noticeably with Controllers), along with Blowouts.

* [[Drone of Dread]]: Psy attacks come with this (most noticeably with Controllers), along with Blowouts.

* [[Dummied Out]]: ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' contains unimplemented code for a variety of features that never made it into the final game, including unused areas, weapons, the ability to drive vehicles, and a Faction Wars system, much of which can be found in the ''Oblivion Lost'' [http://www.3dnow.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1616 beta build 1935]. The Faction Wars system was finally implemented in ''Clear Sky'', and it and ''Call of Pripyat'' include some weapons that had been originally cut from the first.

** Some of the remaining code could cause serious issues; for example, the Yantar lab was still technically affiliated with the Duty faction in the final game, and this could cause a vital NPC to become hostile to the player after waking up from the Blowout if the player was Freedom-affiliated at the time.

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* [[Driving Question]]: For ''Shadow of Chernobyl'': Who or what is the Strelok?

* [[Drunken Master]]: Cardan, the mechanic at Skavodsk, is only competent when he's completely wasted - in fact, he can only perform high-level weapon modifications after downing at least two bottles of vodka. {{spoiler|Showing him the Gauss Rifle, however, shocks him into sobriety.}}

* [[Dwindling Party]]: In ''Call of Pripyat'', once you finally reach Pripyat, you'll ~~rendevous~~ with a platoon-sized group of allied military Spetznaz soldiers, who serve as your allies for the 3rd and final act. Over the course of the Pripyat missions, this force of a few dozen special forces soldiers will gradually be whittled down by Monolith ambushes and mutant attacks to just 3 to 6 soldiers, plus you, Strelok, and the last member of your 4-man party (the other 3 members having left on their own to pursue their own agendas).

* [[Dwindling Party]]: In ''Call of Pripyat'', once you finally reach Pripyat, you'll rendezvous with a platoon-sized group of allied military Spetznaz soldiers, who serve as your allies for the 3rd and final act. Over the course of the Pripyat missions, this force of a few dozen special forces soldiers will gradually be whittled down by Monolith ambushes and mutant attacks to just 3 to 6 soldiers, plus you, Strelok, and the last member of your 4-man party (the other 3 members having left on their own to pursue their own agendas).

* [[Eldritch Location]]: The laws of physics in the Zone are....''different''. It seems relatively normal at first glance, until you walk down a seemingly empty street and accidentally step in an area where gravity is about a hundred times Earth normal, and find yourself experiencing life as a pancake...[[Ludicrous Gibs|very briefly]]. Or decide to stay outside and watch the [[Red Sky, Take Warning|sky turn red]], which is really interesting right up until the hallucinations start and your [[Your Head Asplode|head blows up]]. And that's just the start. Suffice it to say that overall, the Zone is both very weird and very dangerous.

* [[Elite Mooks]]: The military Spetznaz units. Also, the rarely encountered Military Stalkers, who are sort of the Elite of the Elites. These guys are equipped with extremely good armor, and the Military Stalkers are armed with Russian Special Forces AS Val assault rifles.

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** In the English speaking community, the highly idiomatic "chiki briki i v damke" or just "chiki briki" has become a miniature meme of sorts, precisely because no one can agree on what it means and the way the Bandit hunting you says it. (It's the equivalent of "checkmate" in checkers.)

** Some of it is translated in ''Clear Sky'' (e.g.: TAKE THIS, YOU FUCKING NAZI!)

* [[Environmental Symbolism]]: Take your pick. From irradiated mounds of dirt, to trees and landscape twisted by anomalies, to long-abandoned farms, villages, factories and warehouses, to the horribly mutated fauna of the Zone. It's also stuck in eternal autumn and one will very often find themselves ~~travelling~~ through all of the above under heavy rain and thunderstorms, accompanied by the lone caws of crows (the only animals to not have been wiped out... or worse).

* [[Environmental Symbolism]]: Take your pick. From irradiated mounds of dirt, to trees and landscape twisted by anomalies, to long-abandoned farms, villages, factories and warehouses, to the horribly mutated fauna of the Zone. It's also stuck in eternal autumn and one will very often find themselves traveling through all of the above under heavy rain and thunderstorms, accompanied by the lone caws of crows (the only animals to not have been wiped out... or worse).

* [[Escort Mission]]: Escorting the scientist Kruglov through the Wild Territories while protecting him from Mercs (and perhaps random mutants). Made alright because he has surprisingly tough armor, and can also be equipped with an assault rifle.

** He also stays behind you and refuses to enter an area that you haven't already cleared of hostiles.

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* [[Fun with Acronyms]]: ''S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'' stands for "Scavenger, Trespasser, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer, Robber" according to [[The Other Wiki]].

* [[Game Breaking Bug]]: Enemy-thrown grenades in ''Clear Sky'' will quite literally ''[[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|home in on the player]]'', [[Roboteching|actually changing direction in mid-air]] to ensure that they always land at the player's feet.

** Also, ''Clear Sky'' and possibly ''STALKER'' apply the same firing ~~randomisation~~ rule to shots by the player that they do to shots from the enemy. That is, you have to ''actually'' hit your target, then the game essentially rolls a dice to check if you hit your target.

** Also, ''Clear Sky'' and possibly ''STALKER'' apply the same firing randomization rule to shots by the player that they do to shots from the enemy. That is, you have to ''actually'' hit your target, then the game essentially rolls a dice to check if you hit your target.

** The infamous "permanent radiation sickness" in ''Shadow of Chernobyl'': in places like the Garbage or Army Warehouses if one ventures too far up the hills or tries to leave the general "playing area" the radiation counter almost instantly jumps to [[Up to Eleven|eleven]] in order to provide "incentive" for the player to turn back. Now, there are a couple of places in the Zone where the engine detects you as being out of the intended playing area, even though you are not, and afflicts you with the aforementioned permanently increasing rad-sickness that '''never goes away'''. If you save the game after getting it you're pretty much screwed. The only known solution is to reload an earlier save. Take note, people who save each game on top of the last one. Also - be extremely paranoid about this when venturing into the train tunnel at the Garbage.

* [[Game Mod]]: A lot of cut content can be restored by tweaking the configuration files, and many mods use this to rebalance the game and fix various issues.

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* [[Healing Factor]]: Although it takes a while, the player character will slowly heal when not taking damage (or bleeding). Artifacts can speed up this process

** Getting 4 or more flame or electricity battery artifacts and jumping into a fire/electrical surge will restore your health [[Good Bad Bugs|and repair your armor]].

* [[Heal Thyself]] - Comes in two flavors, medkits which heal injuries and bandages which stop bleeding. Interestingly, the enemy is capable of doing this too as long as they have medkits.

* [[Heal Thyself]]: Comes in two flavors, medkits which heal injuries and bandages which stop bleeding. Interestingly, the enemy is capable of doing this too as long as they have medkits.

* [[He Knows Too Much]]: Why Strelok must be killed.

** {{spoiler|In ''Call of Pripyat'', it seems that the main purpose of the Mercenaries is to silence everyone who digs too deep into the secret of the Zone, including our hero, Degtyarev}}.

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** It's heavily hinted at that the Zone is expanding. Growing and encompassing more land/space, in addition to reports of hordes of powerful mutants appearing at the zone border. It's a big probability that if the Zone isn't stopped somehow it could grow to encompass the entire planet.

** The Zone is getting worse with each game. ''Clear Sky'' added some more complex anomalies, even those that affect the ground. ''Call of Pripyat'' gives us Chimeras, Burers, and a lot more creative anomalies.

** ''Clear Sky'' also has this as the premise of the plot - someone is making the Zone go crazy, spawning more blowouts that grow bigger and bigger and shutting off access to some well-~~travelled~~ areas, and Clear Sky wants to find who's doing it, and end them.

** ''Clear Sky'' also has this as the premise of the plot - someone is making the Zone go crazy, spawning more blowouts that grow bigger and bigger and shutting off access to some well-traveled areas, and Clear Sky wants to find who's doing it, and end them.

* [[It's Up to You]]: Subverted in ''Clear Sky''. On the first level, if you don't accomplish the mission objectives, your allies will eventually finish them for you. Also, in Yantar, Lefty's group is perfectly capable of assaulting the factory without your help.

** Also mostly averted in ''Shadow of Chernobyl''. The friendly AI is good enough that, depending on their equipment and experience level (and that of their enemies), they can win many firefights entirely without your assistance (though they'll usually take increased casualties). Occasionally, they'll even call you up to [[What the Hell, Hero?|mock your uselessness]] if you can't or don't help them fight off an attack.

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* [[Lost in Translation]]: In Russian, "C-Consciousness" is "О-Сознание": either "O-Consciousness" or "R-Ealisation", depending on how you read it.

* [[Made of Iron]]: In ''Clear Sky'', NPCs [[Fake Difficulty|can absorb far more damage than the player (and friendly NPCs wearing comparable armor)]]. Even on the easiest difficulty, a low-ranking Ukrainian military trooper can easily survive a point-blank shotgun blast or two full magazines of MP-5 fire to the chest. Especially jarring since enemies in the first game were exactly as strong as friendly NPCs and the player, and even enemies wearing exceptionally tough armor could still be dropped by a few well-placed armor-piercing rounds. Headshots from anything will still kill anyone not wearing an Exoskeleton, and even those can be brought down with one armor-piercing assault rifle round to the head.

** With late-game ~~armour~~ and health artifacts, the player is quite capable of shrugging off automatic gunfire, at least from a single enemy.

** With late-game armor and health artifacts, the player is quite capable of shrugging off automatic gunfire, at least from a single enemy.

*** In SoC, if you're lucky, you can encounter a bandit with ''three'' Meat Chunk artifacts in the Junkyard. Put these on together with anti-bleed and you're a freaking walking tank, because the artifacts' effect ''multiplies'' instead of adding. High instant damage, however, will still kill you, and since each Meat Chunk makes you 10% more vulnerable to damage overall, so your increased metabolism comes at the price of taking significantly more damage.

** Played straight in ''Call of Pripyat'' too. Only the most powerful sniper rifle in the game will bring down a Monolith trooper with a single headshot. Justified, since they're, well, brainwashed and ignoring damage.

*** Averted by a large number of enemies though, especially depending on difficulty and weapon used. Most bandits are poorly ~~armoured~~ thugs that go down with little trouble. Still played straight by zombies to a certain degree - they are much more resistant to torso/extremity shots (on account of being... well, mindless zombies) but still vulnerable to headshots.

*** Averted by a large number of enemies though, especially depending on difficulty and weapon used. Most bandits are poorly armored thugs that go down with little trouble. Still played straight by zombies to a certain degree - they are much more resistant to torso/extremity shots (on account of being... well, mindless zombies) but still vulnerable to headshots.

** Noah is outright [[Immune to Bullets]], capable of surviving ''several hundred'' shots from a high-end assault rifle unscathed. The only way to kill him is with several headshots or a direct grenade hit. Made all the more glaring by the fact his only "armor" is a simple trenchcoat. It's suggested that he's got some insanely powerful artifacts in his possession, which may be how he's able to shrug off bullets to the torso.

* [[Loads and Loads of Loading]]: The main problem of the first game. Other two games have long, but not so annoying loading screens.

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** ...while many popular modifications have been released with the express purpose of making the game ''[[Up to Eleven|even harder]].''

* [[No Canon for the Wicked]]: The good ending of ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' is made canon in ''Call of Pripyat''.

* [[No Export for You]]: The spinoff novels. only available in Russia, written by prolific Russian sci-fi authors, it took some hard digging from the non-eastern-~~european~~ fans to find out about them. and we still barely know much about them. all we know is that they take place in the 2050's, show that things did indeed [[It Got Worse|get worse]] after COP (a third explosion at Chernobyl wipes out the original Zone, but places five more throughout former Soviet states - and has even nastier mutants and unfortunate Stalkers left over turned into man-machine fusions), and images of the book covers are hanging around somewhere on the internet. The official website has some info on them... in Russian.

* [[No Export for You]]: The spinoff novels. only available in Russia, written by prolific Russian sci-fi authors, it took some hard digging from the non-eastern-European fans to find out about them. and we still barely know much about them. all we know is that they take place in the 2050's, show that things did indeed [[It Got Worse|get worse]] after COP (a third explosion at Chernobyl wipes out the original Zone, but places five more throughout former Soviet states - and has even nastier mutants and unfortunate Stalkers left over turned into man-machine fusions), and images of the book covers are hanging around somewhere on the internet. The official website has some info on them... in Russian.

** There are two book series: "Зона Смерти", "The Death Zone", which is described above, consisting of 15 books, and "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." series, set in the same zone as the games, consisting of about 60 books from dozen of writers.

** Recently a novel set in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe called "Southern Comfort" was released in ~~english~~ so this might be averted if we're lucky.

** Recently a novel set in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe called "Southern Comfort" was released in English so this might be averted if we're lucky.

* [[Non Indicative Difficulty]]: The difficulty settings pretty much only influence what percentage of shots not hitting the head "glance" and do negligible damage to the player. Due to an oversight, this also applies to enemies, leading to humorous situations where you can unload an entire magazine on an enemy on Easy and the target will just shuffle off harmlessly. Once you learn how to score headshots reliably, the enemies still have a harder time killing you than you killing them.

** ''Call Of Pripyat'' averts this, removing the "glancing shot" system in favor of a linear damage scale to the player. This has the effect of making the game substantially easier than the other two installments due to the player's relative health being much higher on settings lower than Master difficulty, but there is no longer a situation where you can unload an entire magazine on someone and deal next to no damage.

* [[No Scope]]: It's not uncommon to see players laying in ambush with a sniper rifle at close range in ~~multiplayer~~ matches, as the sniper rifles are much better at piercing armor than the shotguns and the handling penalty doesn't factor in when you stand still for a couple of seconds. The VSS Vintorez in particular is used more often as an assault rifle than as a sniper rifle because of its great handling and high rate of fire.

* [[No Scope]]: It's not uncommon to see players laying in ambush with a sniper rifle at close range in multi-player matches, as the sniper rifles are much better at piercing armor than the shotguns and the handling penalty doesn't factor in when you stand still for a couple of seconds. The VSS Vintorez in particular is used more often as an assault rifle than as a sniper rifle because of its great handling and high rate of fire.

* [[Nuclear Physics Goof]]: Radiation is treated as evil mud that will kill you if you forget to wash it off, either with magical anti-radiation pills or drinking enough Vodka. Obviously, gameplay-wise, this beats dying a slow, hideous death for going the wrong way.

* [[Obvious Beta]]: Both ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' and ''Clear Sky'' were this at release, though they were both eventually patched to full playability. ''Call of Pripyat'' was, [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|fortunately]], playable straight out of the box, because the non-English versions were the [[Obvious Beta]].

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** Hell, one arena match, you're required to use this attack if you want to survive (you + knife versus some guy with a F2000, the best CQC assault rifle, and an Exo.)

*** You also get several frag grenades in this match... you just don't know it until you're dropped in.

** It's also a surprisingly viable option when forced to engage a Controller up close - all weapons take too long to ~~recock~~ when pulling them back out after a psy attack.

** It's also a surprisingly viable option when forced to engage a Controller up close - all weapons take too long to re-cock when pulling them back out after a psy attack.

* [[One-Gender Race]]: Due to time constraints and developer laziness, there ''are'' women Stalkers in the Zone... you just never see them. [[PD As]] often refer girlfriends in the Zone, and with mods, you can encounter some women Stalkers.

** Female stalkers will apparently appear in STALKER 2.

* [[Order Versus Chaos]]: Duty vs Freedom. Partially subverted in that neither faction is explicitly 'good' or 'bad', Freedom isn't so much chaos as, well, freedom, and there's nothing stopping the player from allying with ''both'' of them.

* [[Our Vampires Are Different]] - Bloodsuckers, more like hideous [[Resident Evil|Umbrella]] mutants than actual vampires. There's one STALKER who's got a condition that forces him to crave blood in [[Call Of Pripyat]]...

* [[Our Vampires Are Different]]: Bloodsuckers, more like hideous [[Resident Evil|Umbrella]] mutants than actual vampires. There's one STALKER who's got a condition that forces him to crave blood in [[Call Of Pripyat]]...

* [[Our Zombies Are Different]]: They still retain enough intelligence to fire and reload guns, but they are unable to heal themselves and still shamble about, mumbling incoherent fragments of sentences. If you have mods, you can encounter more "traditional" zombies, but they're much more resistant to damage than regular zombies, requiring several good hits to the head (and then some) to take them down permanently.

** And some of are actually semi-transparent glowing ''[[Half Life: Full Life Consequences|zombie ghosts]]''. Technically, they've been warped further by the Zone and are in some sort of odd quantum state, similar to some anomalies, but they're just harder to kill.

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* [[Powers That Be]]: {{spoiler|C-Consciousness, the entity that controls the Zone. It's gone, now, but things are getting worse, due to their absence.}}

* [[Private Military Contractors]]: The Mercenaries.

* [[Punch Clock Villain]] - Borov, a Bandit leader you have to kill in Shadow of Chernobyl, reveals in his journal that he ''really'' hates leading around a bunch of [[Chaotic Evil]] bastards who'd stab each other for fun and profit.

* [[Punch Clock Villain]]: Borov, a Bandit leader you have to kill in Shadow of Chernobyl, reveals in his journal that he ''really'' hates leading around a bunch of [[Chaotic Evil]] bastards who'd stab each other for fun and profit.

* [[Punctuated for Emphasis]] - Quoth a Freedom stalker during a raid:

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* [[Respawning Enemies]]

* [[Right-Handed Left-Handed Guns]]: Every single rifle has its ejection port on the left side. [[It Got Worse]] with the world models - they have ejection ports on left and right sides of the receiver.

* [[Ruins of the Modern Age]]/[[And Man Grew Proud]] : ''And how !'' Obviously, the area around the Chernobyl power plant is really [[Truth in Television]]. And it does have a greatly haunting vibe to it, even without the presence of ~~bizzare~~ mutated monsters and paranormal activity like in the game.

* [[Ruins of the Modern Age]]/[[And Man Grew Proud]] : ''And how !'' Obviously, the area around the Chernobyl power plant is really [[Truth in Television]]. And it does have a greatly haunting vibe to it, even without the presence of bizarre mutated monsters and paranormal activity like in the game.

* [[Saharan Shipwreck]]: The barges and ships in the Zaton area.

** The area was partially drained of water to help calm the fires at the NPP back in '86. Time finished the job, though not entirely, the place is still somewhat of a swamp.

* [[Save Scumming]]: The Quick Save button is your ~~saviour~~. It's not uncommon that by starting a fight, quicksaving, and quickloading again, they will completely forget that you just shot their buddy to steal his gun, and offer you a nice hot radioactive cup of tea. Due to the fact that it's entirely possible, in fact VERY probable, that mission-critical NPCs, friends, whole camps will rise and fall almost randomly, saving often is a must.

* [[Save Scumming]]: The Quick Save button is your savior. It's not uncommon that by starting a fight, quicksaving, and quickloading again, they will completely forget that you just shot their buddy to steal his gun, and offer you a nice hot radioactive cup of tea. Due to the fact that it's entirely possible, in fact VERY probable, that mission-critical NPCs, friends, whole camps will rise and fall almost randomly, saving often is a must.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]

* [[Schrodinger's Gun]]: You can check stashes at any time, but until you find a PDA saying a Stalker stashed something there the majority of them will be empty.

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* [[Shooting Gallery]]: In the novel ''Lead Sunset'', a flashback of Major Kupriyanov is him and his military academy mates being taken for an exam that involved this. He got the lowest points, because he shot every target he saw with unerring accuracy. Including the kids. When the instructor asked him why, he said something on the lines of "The order was to shoot every target, not every enemy target. I see no difference between a cardboard hostile and a cardboard civilian". Then he was asked if he would still shoot if those were real people. He replied with a hearty "yes", because the command probably had a reason for him to kill these people. He was accepted.

* [[Shout-Out]]: [[Half Life|Gordon Freeman]]'s corpse can be found as an Easter Egg in ''Shadow of Chernobyl'', complete with PDA entry lamenting that he had to sell his crowbar.

** The rare and dangerous mutant type known as 'Controllers' use literally the exact same sound files as Half-Life 2's ~~headcrab~~ zombies, although it's not clear whether this is a shout-out or just plain laziness.

** The rare and dangerous mutant type known as 'Controllers' use literally the exact same sound files as Half-Life 2's Headcrab zombies, although it's not clear whether this is a shout-out or just plain laziness.

*** The developer had licenced a number of assets from Valve so it may be more just a [[Stock Sound Effects|stock sound effect]].

** Several small cardboard boxes marked 'Fragile' and quite clearly labeled with the [[Lost|Dharma Initiative]] logo can be found in lab X-18 in ''Shadow of Chernobyl''.

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* [[Technically Living Zombie]]: The zombie stalkers are not dead, they just got their higher-brain functions scorched out.

* [[Thriving Ghost Town]]: The largest settlement to appear in the series thus far has a permanent population of less than two dozen, although depending on how many traveling stalkers are passing through at the time that number can swell to as much as fifty.

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* [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] - The games take place in 2012, with the first known instances of Stalking happening in 2009.

* [[Tomato in the Mirror]]: {{spoiler|YOU are Strelok... which is OK, because Strelok is actually the good guy.}}

* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: The RPG-7, which has the most rare ammo type in the entire game. One hit will kill literally ''anything''... which is almost completely offset by the fact that you're only guaranteed to find ONE rocket outside of Pripyat and the NPP.

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* [[Twenty Bear Asses]]: The various "bring a monster part" optional side missions. Most provide shotgun ammunition, and the best way to do them is actually to get the various mutant bits (one of the two kinds of dog tail, Bloodsucker jaws, Flesh eyes, Boar feet, etcetera) and THEN take the mission. Of course, the "where the hell is the tail/eyes/jaw/feet/etc, I see them just fine" still applies, as it'll take you quite a while to start finding parts with regularity. Technically it's only ''one'' bear ass, since they only ask for one part at a time, but the principle's the same.

** Lampshaded and justified - most of the mission givers acknowledge it's inane, time consuming, and stupid, but they get tidy profits off of superstituous idiots/newbies, scientists wishing to study how mutants behave and perceive the world, and black market dealers who sell usable creature parts for money (supposedly, a whole line of illegal fur coats made of psuedodog tails are popular in Russia, and so on.)

⚫

* [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]]: The games take place in 2012, with the first known instances of Stalking happening in 2009.

* [[Russians With Rusting Rockets|Ukrainians With Rusting Rockets]]: Although the Spetsnaz troopers you encounter generally avert this, the regular Ukrainian army troopers in the Zone are poorly equipped, insufficiently supplied, inexperienced, and unmotivated.

** In ''Shadow of Chernobyl'', one of the easiest ways to obtain a semi-decent weapon right off the bat is to raid the military base that's at the far end of the road in Cordon, the newbie area. A dozen-plus soldiers, and if you're good about staying under cover, you might not take any damage at all. Unless the Spetznaz are there, which can happen. If you kill ''them'', though, you should be set on weapons for half the game. Eventually, when you return to Sidorovich halfway through the game, you ''are'' going to have to raid it. You'll make a neat profit off it, even if Sidorovich is rather tightwadded.

* [[Vader Breath]] - The player, whenever they equip anything with a gas mask.

* [[Vader Breath]]: The player, whenever they equip anything with a gas mask.

* [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]: The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

* [[Video Game Caring Potential]]: The player may find badly-wounded NPCs curled up and crying out in pain. If the player goes up and interacts with them, they will have the option to give them a Medkit so that they can survive. The problem with that is that the people who shot them down in the first place may likely still be around, and so will only end up shooting them down again for good. So do you save the badly wounded individual crying out for help by killing his assailants (who may be nominally friend or foe) and healing him, or leave him to die?